The present invention relates to a card connector mounted on electronic devices, such as cellular phones, telephones, PDA (personal digital assistant), portable audio devices and digital cameras, and more specifically to a structure of the card connector for ejecting a card.
In electronic devices such as cellular phones, telephones, PDA and digital cameras, a variety of functions are added by loading an IC card with a built-in IC (integrated circuit) like control circuit, memory, such as a SIM (subscriber identity module), an MMC (multimedia card)(trademark), a Smart Media (trademark) and an SD (secure digital or super density) card.
In a connector structure for removably accommodating such an IC card, a plurality of contact terminals made from a resilient metal leaf are provided in a connector housing to make contact with a plurality of contact pads formed on the front or back surface of the loaded IC card to electrically connect the IC card to the electronic device mounting that connector. The contact pads of the IC card include a power supplying pad connected to a power supply line and a plurality of signal pads for transmitting and receiving various signals. These contact pads are connected via the contact terminals of the card connector to a power circuit and various signal processing circuits in the electronic device.
Many of such card connectors have an ejection mechanism for ejecting a loaded IC card from the connector.
An ejection mechanism of this kind currently available is known to have an ejection member urged in an ejection direction to eject a IC card, a locking member for blocking the movement of the ejection member in the eject direction, and an ejection button member to release the locking member to allow the ejection member to move and eject the card. An example of such a prior art is shown in FIG. 5.
In FIG. 5, the ejection member 100 is configured to slide relative to the connector body in a card insertion direction A and a card ejection direction B and is urged in the ejection direction B by a coil spring 102. An engagement portion 101 adapted to engage the locking member 110 is arranged in the vicinity of the locking member 110 made from a leaf spring so that the locking member 110 can lock the ejection member 100. A connecting portion 104 is arranged to connect between the engagement portion 101 and the ejection member 100 and formed integral with the engagement portion 101 and the ejection member 100. The locking member 110 has a lock hole for latching together the engagement portion 101 to block the movement of the ejection member 100 in the ejection direction B. A tapered surface 121 is formed at its front end side of the ejection button 120 tapered surface, and comes in contact with the front end of the locking member 110. 130 denotes a brake shoeshoe made from a leaf spring to prevent the card from slipping off. 140 designates ends of two contact pieces that constitute a card recognition switch. These two contact pieces are configured to contact each other by one of them being vertically displaced by a downward pressing force of the underside of a side edge portion 100a of ejection member 100.
In the conventional structure described above, pressing operation of the ejection button 120 displaces the locking member 110 in a direction D by the pressing force of the tapered surface 121, disengaging the engagement portion 101 from the locking member 110. The ejection member 100 therefore is moved in the ejection direction B by the spring force of the coil spring 102, while ejecting the loaded card out of the connector.
In many cases, the card connector of this kind is often required to reduce its size and height, which necessitates various parts of the connector to be laid out efficiently in a small space.
To satisfy this requirement, rather than arranging the ejection member 100 and the ejection button 120 on the one side of the card accommodating space, it is advantageous to place them on the both sides of the card accommodating space respectively as shown in FIG. 5 because this arrangement allows various parts to be laid out efficiently.
With this prior art, however, the engagement portion 101 is extended by the connecting portion 104 to a position of the ejection button 120 located on a side of the card accommodating space opposite the ejection member 100 so that the movement of the ejection member 100 is restricted at a position on the ejection button 120 side. Thus, the locations of the coil spring 102 urging the ejection member 100 and the engagement portion 101 are largely spaced apart along the width direction. In this prior art, accordingly, the ejection member 100 in itself is acted upon by an angular moment, so ejection member 100 is tilted, giving rise to various problems, such as the locking member 110 being easily unlocked, the electric connection between the IC card and the connector becoming unstable, and the card recognition switch 140 turning off when the card is loaded.
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances and it is an object of the present invention to provide a card connector that can prevent the tilting of the ejection member and support the card straight relative to the connector in which it is accommodated.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a card connector which comprises: a connector housing having a card accommodating portion and removably supporting a card; an ejection member having an touch portion for coming in contact with a front end face of the card, the ejection member being slidable relative to the connector housing in a card insertion direction and in a card ejection direction; an elastic body urging the ejection member in the card ejection direction; an ejection button disposed in an opposite side to the elastic body on both sides of the card accommodating portion; and a stopper locking means having a stopper portion, the stopper portion being disposed in an opposite side to ejection button on both sides of the card accommodating portion to regulate the movement of the ejection member in the card ejection direction, wherein when the ejection button is depressed, the stopper portion is made to move to an unlocking position to free the ejection member and when the ejection button is released from the depressing operation, the stopper portion is made to move toward a blocking position where it blocks the movement of the ejection member in the card ejection direction.
The stopper locking means has, for example, a leaf spring portion for generating an elastic force acting in a direction perpendicular to the card insertion direction and a slide portion connecting the leaf spring portion and the stopper portion and moving the stopper portion in a direction perpendicular to the card insertion direction. These stopper portion, the leaf spring portion and the slide portion are integrally formed as one piece.
In this invention, the stopper portion that blocks the movement of the ejection member in the card ejection direction is arranged in an opposite side to the ejection button on both sides of the card accommodating portion opposite, i.e., ejection member is disposed at the position which met in the width direction of card connector, and is in the position of the same side as the position with the elastic body which urges the ejection member in the card ejection direction.
This arrangement produces no angular moment acting on the ejection member, which in turn allows the ejection member to align its attitude straight with the connector. It is therefore possible to prevent troubles, such as the contact between the contact pads and the contact terminals becoming unstable, the eject lock inadvertently getting unlocked, and the card recognition switch undesirably being operated.